Since 1945: Short Answer Quiz

Jhumpa Lahiri, “Sexy”


  1. When Miranda first expresses interest in the Bengali region of India, Dev rebuffs her question to know more by explaining his home city is “Nothing you’ll ever need to worry about” (3250 [full ed.] 2859 [shorter ed]); similarly, when Miranda enters the Indian grocer and thinks about buying some of Laxmi’s favorite snack mix, the man behind the counter tells her it is “Very spicy…. Too spicy for you” (3258 [full ed.] 2867 [shorter ed.]). On the other hand, when Miranda goes shopping for clothes she thinks a married man’s mistress ought to wear, she buys a cocktail dress that she’s assured will make Dev “want to rip it right off you” (3255 [full ed.] 2864 [shorter ed.]), even though she never gets to wear it out to dinner with him. Describe the ways in which cultural differences sometimes come between Dev and Miranda based on the language in these passages.

  1. Both Rohin and Dev (in different ways) take possession of Miranda’s privacy, demanding she wear certain clothes for them and ordering her to perform certain actions. They also both call her “sexy,” though for different reasons. Why does she submit to both of them?

  1. When Miranda and Dev visit the Mapparium, they stand on a “transparent bridge, so that they felt as if they were standing in the center of the world” (3253 [full ed.] 2863 [shorter ed.]); later on, they stand on two opposite ends of the bridge and whisper to each other. How is the Mapparium and the bridge a figure for what the story is saying about cross-cultural contact?

  1. When Dev sympathizes with Miranda’s move from Michigan to Boston, he says, “I know what it’s like to be lonely” (3252 [full ed.] 2862 [shorter ed.]), she feels as though he truly understands her, and that they have a profound mystical connection. But within a page he tells her she is “The first woman I’ve known with legs this long” (3253 [full ed.] 2862 [shorter ed.]). Then again, the first thing Miranda notices about Dev in Filene’s Basement is that he is “tanned, with black hair that was visible on his knuckles” (3251 [full ed.] 2860 [shorter ed.]). Partly she may have been concentrating on his fingers to see signs of a wedding ring (he wasn’t wearing his), but ten paragraphs later she wonders about his accent, thinking he “might be Spanish, or Lebanese.” Consider how Rohin defines “sexy” as “loving someone you don’t know” (3263 [full ed.] 2873 [shorter ed.]) and then decide whether desire in this story is based on the exotic or foreign qualities of strangers, or whether it is possible to truly know and love people; explain your decision.



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